Northern Exchange: Cold War Projects: Dome

A mobile, geodesic dome was a tool for engagement in Northern Exchange: Cold War Histories and Nuclear Futures. It comprises 50 polypropylene triangles, each of which is inscribed with written text or drawings by participants from different Icelandic communities where NATO radar stations are situated: Höfn, Keflavík, Bolungarvík and Pórshöfn. The dome was taken around Iceland to each of these communities and erected either outdoors or indoors. Additionally it was shown in Reykjavík at Höfði House, the site of the Summit between Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan, which many cite as the beginning of the end of the Cold War. NATO uses a radome at most of its radar installations, often forming a local landmark. It is familiar to communities throughout the Northern and Arctic regions and thus creates a shared point of reference. The dome provided a way for people to work together, through building it to attaching their triangles and engaging with what others had recorded on their triangles. The dome symbolically made visible the memories and perceptions we collected at each Cold War installation that was near these communities. It also attracted attention, bringing people to us, and served to initiate conversations which led to shared knowledge and experience, often leading to discussion about the current Nuclear threat.